Improvement in the manufacture of spoons



J. M. PERKINS Manufacture of Spoons.

N0. 222,729. Patented Dec. I6, 879.

(Afr? 4' 4 @ZfM N-PETERS, FHOTO UTHOGRkPHER, WASHXNGTON. 11C.

great extent would obliterate the ornamenta- NITED JAMES M. PERKINS, OF MERIDEN,

CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE CHARLES PARKER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SPOONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 222,729, dated December 16, 1879; application filed June 12, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES M. PERKINS, of Meriden, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in the Manufacture of Metal Spoons; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figures 1 and 2, face and edge view of the blank; Figs. 3 and 4, face and edge view after the handle is bent and prior to stamping; Fig. 5, face view of the finished spoon.

Thisinveution relates to an improvement in the manufacture of spoons, forks, and like articles of tableservice, which, for convenience in this application, is embraced in the single title of spoons.

In the usual method of manufacturing spoons the blank is cut from sheet metal, the handle drawn down thinner toward the top, and the bowl thinner from the handle toward the point, as seen in Fig. 2. The blank is then tinned, and while still in its flat condition is placed between dies, which impress the ornamentation upon the surface of the handle. The tinniug is necessarily done before stamping, because, if not, the tiuning to a very tion. After receiving the impression the bowl is shaped, and this causes rough edges, which must be trimmed, necessitating a second tilining of the bowl. After the figure has been impressed upon the handle it is then bent by dies having the requisite irregular longitudinal shape. These dies to a considerable extent remove the sharp cut of the impression, detracting materially from the beauty and finish of the ornamentation. I

The object of this invention is to simplify and cheapen the manufacture, as also to produce a very much superior article; and it consists in the method hereinafter described, and more particularly recited in the claim.

The blank is cut, as in Figs. 1 and 2, the same as for the old method. Then the bowl and handle are shaped, as in Figs. 3 and 4, by suitable dies, substantially the same as those finally applied inthe old method to give that shape. This leaves the face plain, as seen in Fig. 3. Then the so-far-shaped spoon is tinned,

and finally the tinned plain spoon is sub jected to the ornamenting-dies, 'which correspond to the irregular or curved shape of the handle, and on which the reverse of the ornamentation is cut. This stamping impresses upon the curved spoon the desired ornamentation, and is the final and finishing operation. This method of completely shaping the blank before tinning avoids the second tinning of the bowl, and the stamping of the handle after bending, which is the essential feature of,

this invention, avoids the defacing of the ornamentation of the handle, which is uuavoidable in the usual method of bending after stamping.

A further important advantage due to this improvement is that the handle is greatly stiffened, because if, as in the old process, the

bending be done after it is stamped for ornamentation, the increased density and compactness or temper due-to such stamping is disturbed, and the handle proportionately weakened, whereas, by making the stamping the last step in the process, and after the handle is otherwise complete, it imparts a great degree of stiffness or temper to the handle, which it will retain.

It will be understood that the subsequent plating of the spoon is the usual electroplating process.

I am aware that the handles of spoons have been bent and ornamented at one and the corresponding in shape to such previouslyshaped plain handle, but having in their surface the reverse of the ornamentation to be produced.

JAMES M. PERKINS.

Witnesses R. A. PALMER,

GEO. (J. MEERiAM. 

